Hi to....myself apparently....as nobody seems to use Mackie Control with Renoise

Anyway, here's my status for now:

i finally succeeded sending sysex messages to the Main LCD display.

For now, i only display track names under "Mixer+Panning Configuration", and more interesting Effect Devices Names (works for VST's) with their params names and values, and also Presets numbers, soon preset names.

This (display implementation) was the most difficult part for me, but now that i'm sure i can display almost any Renoise Variable, so many ideas are coming to my mind...

I'm thinking of making a good suite for MCUPro with Duplex, with certainly its own 'Duplex Application File' so i'll not have to modify the core files at everyupdate! I want to modify the Effect App to control the Instrument FX devices, as it works only for Track Devices for now. I will probably use the NOW application as the MCUPro have many buttons that should be used. Some controls (buttons) will be duplicated in the diffferent config files like the transport ones. I also have some other ideas with the display, but i'm afraid the latency it generate will not allow much traffic!

Anyway, i'll not be able to code for 1 week, so any of you can make suggestions about the layout and/or the controls and/or displays, within my capabilities.

For Now, All faders are working, v-pot feedbacks also. Their feedback's CC indexes are offseted by 32 so that's the only reason i changed 'MidiDevice.lua'. I can display whatever i want on the main display. I didn't investigate deep yet about the 7 segments digits displays, only failed sending to the MCU some MMC clock frames. If you have any tips for using those 7segments please help me!

I don't know how many have such a controller, personally I'm only aware of Satobox' work on the (less involved) Mackie Control template.

i finally succeeded sending sysex messages to the Main LCD display.

Great!! I'm curious to see the implementation, as I've only got software based (tablet) controllers that could display text.

Ideally (for Duplex anyway) the implementation details could reside in the MCUPro "driver" class. But this is of course something that would require a generalized way to send text, including how to specify special characters, linebreaks etc. In the longer term...

I'm thinking of making a good suite for MCUPro with Duplex, with certainly its own 'Duplex Application File' so i'll not have to modify the core files at everyupdate! I want to modify the Effect App to control the Instrument FX devices, as it works only for Track Devices for now. I will probably use the NOW application as the MCUPro have many buttons that should be used. Some controls (buttons) will be duplicated in the diffferent config files like the transport ones.

Applications are full featured lua files, having just an entry point (__init) and a few required methods. So yeah, it's certainly possible to sidestep the Duplex internals and communicate directly with the hardware (if this is what you intend).

However, you will miss out on various I/O optimizations - side effect being, that the Duplex core code can be quite hard to decipher...

I also have some other ideas with the display, but i'm afraid the latency it generate will not allow much traffic!

I would probably create a queue system, in which messages are scheduled for transmission and transmitted with regular intervals (lua has approx. 10 updates per second). This way, you'll avoid choking the bandwidth but of course, add a little bit of latency. Not that it should matter much when we're just talking about display updates?

Their feedback's CC indexes are offseted by 32 so that's the only reason i changed 'MidiDevice.lua'

Incoming and outgoing CCs are not the same on the MCU? A more clean approach would probably be to overriding that particular MidiDevice method in a dedicated MCU class.

Device classes are located in the root of each controller folder, e.g. the Launchpad has a little extra code to handle color LEDs

I use the actual duplex version ( not the beta),

You are aware that the most recent beta has support for 14-bit CCs and NRPNs? Not sure if this applies to the MCU though, or if it's using pitchbend for those high-res sliders. Anyway, I'll give it a spin with the latest version too (0.9.5)

didn't find attachement file option on reply post....so i could send you my last progress..

You have to know that i'm not a programmer at all, so my code is very messy, and i try tones of thing before i make any little step!

There's no real implementation of sysex sending, i made it directly from the update functions of the applications i used for the test (effect & mixer).

I don't like that and i'm sorry, but that's the only way i understood for now.

I tried the 0.9.5 beta version, but my faders are not working sending in any "mode"(of fader type). So i did continue with the stable version.

Yes ingoing and outgoing CC only for v-pot are different. Don't know why but it is. I understand what you mean by overriding MidiDevice, but i don't simply know how to do that.

About the MCU Pro hardware itself, you cannot find at all any midi map. I've done tones of researches online and never found anything. I used MIDI-OX bridged between the MCU and Ableton, and i caught sysex strings "on the fly". After some tests i found the common pattern, and the starting position of the things you want to write.

- Almost all buttons assigned. Some will probably change in future when i'll make more modes.

- In "Mixer Mode": the V-Pots are used for tracks panning, the main dispaly shows track names (2 lines of 6 characters max for each track).

- In "Effect Mode": V-Pots are used for changing parameters, main display line 1 shows selected track name, selected device name, preset number and preset name. Line 2 shows parameter names up to each assigned V-Pot.

I'm still failing on using the 7 segments displays with MMC sync. Hope i'll find a way of using it some day...

I made my own transport application with time counter display management....based on existing variables "bars", "beats" and "fractions". It's working as i wanted, only "fractions" displays are not refreshing quick enough for now while playback (working while navigating into the pattern lines).

This is for sure due to the update frequency that my application cannot follow. It's not a big problem for me, as i have most importants infos (bars and beats) working well...

I'm pretty satisfied by the different displays now (main led + time counter). I'll focus on adding existing applications into new configurations now...

I found out the BCR2000 also would do it, without the labeling of course. I just wrote a small script which works fine on midi dumping. I think I'll use the BCR2000 because I'll get it for almost nothing.

Hey Rent Demon, do you have a current version of the code? or is that last .zip what you've got? I'm thinking of using MCU to talk to my Ableton Push display and PXT General. I think your code would be a great place to start.

I'm just moving to Renoise and was worried my most expensive piece of gear, a Behringer X-Touch, would be next to useless, so I'm glad I found this thread.
'm going to take a look at your modifications and try and improve from that. I guess I'll post whatever I come up with, if I do, in case someone else is interested.